Jumping the Dragon Gate:

Experience, Contexts,
Career Pathways, and
Professional Identity
Gayle A. Curtis, Michaelann Kelley,
P. Tim Martindell, Donna J. Reid,
Cheryl J. Craig, and M. Michael Perez
Travelling Story
& Chinese Metaphor
Theoretical
Framework
• Story
• a “portal to experience” (Xu &
Connelly, 2010, p. 35)
• Identity
• “the self [as] not [being] ready-
made, but something in continuous
formation, through choice and
action” (Dewey, 1920/1967, p. 194)
• Metaphor
• “the essence of metaphor is
understanding and experiencing
one kind of thing in terms of
another” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003,
p. 5)
We wondered

How do those we work with, who In what ways do experiences,

often hold fewer professional and
life experiences (and whose
roles/positions perhaps hold less
power), cope with challenges similar
to what we have encountered?
relationships, contexts, and visions
of self influence shifts/changes in
career pathways and re-shape our
teacher identities?

How can we improve our practice?

Setting Aside Western Interpretations
 Common Themes

Tensions
Tensions
between intersection
Influence of between
how career of job
changing the stories
pathways positions
professional we tell
are viewed with
landscapes ourselves
by others age/gender
on career- and the
and how in both seen
pathway stories
they and unseen
decisions others tell
actually ways
about us
unfold
Reflective Writing
• Reflect on your career pathway,
reframing your experiences through
the Dragon Gate metaphor.
• What challenges have you
encountered in your career pathway
that significantly shaped your teacher
educator identity?
Discuss in Groups
• What are two or three
commonalities of your stories?

• What are the implications for our

work as teacher educators?
Group Share

• Briefly share an experience and the

implications for practice as teacher educators.
 Lessons Learned
• Even after 20 years together, we have untold
stories to share
• The self, having been stifled and stymied for a
significant period, and having exhausted other
options, is keenly aware of what is both gained
and lost in life-/career-sustaining decisions
• Internal/external expectations and perceptions of
position/place create tensions in one’s self-image
as teacher/teacher educator, often challenging
one’s teacher identity
• Flat trajectory of teaching in which teacher
growth may be present in practice but not
apparent to others
Going Forward
• Encourage teachers to see themselves as teacher
educators as they engage in mentoring others and
taking on leadership roles
• Pay attention to the intersection of age at both the
beginning and end of careers
• Trust your instincts about bad situations; new
beginnings can be a positive move for self- /teacher
identity, well-being, and career trajectory
• Being transparent about our own career pathway
experiences as we work with our pre- and in-service
teachers, we hope to encourage them to consider
teaching not just a job but a lifelong career and
future
• Just as our students are changed by our feedback,
we too are changed by their feedback
References
• Bateson, M. C. (1994). Peripheral visions: Learning along the way. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
• Bullough, R. V. Jr., & Pinnegar, S. (2001). Guidelines for quality in autobiographical forms of self-study research. Educational Research, 30(3),
13–21.
• Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1995). Teachers' professional knowledge landscapes. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Clandinin, D. J., Downey, C. A., & Huber, J. (2009). Attending to changing landscapes: Shaping the interwoven identities of teachers and
teacher educators. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 37(2), 141-154.
• Clandinin, D. J., Huber, J., Huber, M., Murphy, M. S., Murray Orr, A., Pearce, M., & Steeves, P. (2006). Composing diverse identities: Narrative
inquiries into the interwoven lives of children and teachers. London, UK: Routledge.
• Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1999) Shaping a professional identity: Stories of educational practice. New York, NY: Teachers’ College
Press.
• Craig, C. J. (2007). Illuminating qualities of knowledge communities in a portfolio‐making context. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and
Practice, 13(6), 617-636.
• Craig, C. J. (2013). Teacher education and the best-loved self. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 33(3), 261-272.
References
• Craig, C. J. (2018). Fish jumps over the dragon gate: A eastern image of a western scholar’s career trajectory. Manuscript submitted for publication.
• Craig, C. J., You, J., & Oh, S. (2017). Pedagogy through the pearl metaphor: Teaching as a process of ongoing refinement. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 49(6), 757-781.
• Crites, S. (1971). The narrative quality of experience. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 39(3), 291-311.
• Curtis, G., Reid, D., Kelley, M., Martindell, P. T., & Craig, C. J. (2013). Braided lives: Multiple ways of knowing, flowing in and out of knowledge communities. Studying Teacher
Education, 9(2), 175-186.
• Dewey, J. (1967). Reconstruction in philosophy. New York, NY: Beacon. (Original work published in 1920)
• Guilfoyle, K., Hamilton, M. L., Pinnegar, S., & Placier, P. (2004). The epistemological dimensions and dynamics of professional dialogue in self-study. In J. J. Loughran, M. L.
Hamilton, V. K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 1109–1167). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
• Hamilton, M. L., & Pinnegar, S. (1998). Conclusion: The value and the promise of self-study. In M. L. Hamilton (Ed.), Reconceptualizing teaching practice: Self-study in teacher
education (pp. 235–246). London, UK: Falmer.
• LaBoskey, V. K. (2004). The methodology of self-study and its theoretical underpinnings. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International
handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 817– 869). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
• Lakoff, G., & Johnsen, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Lin, G. (2009). Where the mountain meets the moon. New York, NY: Hatchette.
• Lindemann Nelson, H. (2001). Damaged identities: Narrative repair. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
References
• Lyons, N., & LaBoskey, V. K. (Eds.). (2002). Narrative inquiry in practice: Advancing the knowledge of teaching (Vol. 22). New York, NY: Teachers College
Press.
• Munby, H., & Russell, T. (1994). The authority of experience in learning to teach: Message from a physics methods classroom. Journal of Teacher
Education, 25(2), 89–95.
• Nash, R. (2004). Liberating scholarly writing: The power of personal narrative. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Olson, M., & Craig, C. (2009). Traveling stories: Converging milieus and educative conundrums. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(8), 1077-1085.
• Palmer, P. J. (1997). The heart of a teacher identity and integrity in teaching. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 29(6), 14-21.
• Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books.
• Schuck, S., & Russell, T. (2005). Self-study, critical friendship, and the complexities of teacher education. Studying Teacher Education, 1(2), 107-121.
• Schwab, J. (1978). Eros and education: A discussion of one aspect of discussion. In I. Westbury & N. Wilkof (Eds.), Science, curriculum and liberal
education: Selected essays (pp. 105-132). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published in 1954)
• Spence, D. (1984). Narrative truth and historical truth: Meaning and interpretation in psychoanalysis. New York, NY: Norton.
• Tidwell, D., & Manke, M. P. (2009). Making meaning of practice through visual metaphor. In D. L. Tidwell, M. L. Heston, & L. M. Fitzgerald (Eds.),
Research methods for the self-study of practice (pp. 135-154). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
• Xu, S. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2010). Narrative inquiry for school-based research. Narrative Inquiry, 20(2), 349-370.